The effect of moderate intensity exercise on the activity of catalase enzyme and malondialdehyde in hippocampus area of diabetic male Wistar rats

Diabetes mellitus exacerbates oxidative stress and reduces the antioxidant defense system activity. As the brain has a high sensitivity to oxidative stress due to physiological and biochemical reasons and scientific evidence suggests the effect of regular exercise on reducing brain sensitivity to brain damage under pathophysiological conditions. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effect of moderate intensity exercise training on the activity of catalase enzyme and malondialdehyde in hippocampus area of diabetic male Wistar rats. Twenty-four male rats (245±9.4 g) aged 10 weeks were divided into four groups (diabetic training, diabetic control, healthy training and healthy control). The rats of the diabetic group were diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ). The exercise program included 6 weeks of moderate intensity exercise. At the end of six weeks, the hippocampal tissue samples were extracted 24 hours after the last training session and the activity of catalase enzyme and malondialdehyde was evaluated. After the endurance training, the catalase levels in both diabetic training group (161.24±7.74) compared to the diabetic control group (148.55±8.05) and healthy training group (408.85±2.3) compared to the healthy control group (283.44±9.33) were significantly increased (P<0.05). Also, the level of malondialdehyde in the diabetic training group (9.65±1.75) was significantly decreased compared to the control diabetic group (13.23±1.01) (P>0.05). It can be concluded that endurance training may be effective to increase the antioxidant role of catalase enzyme and reduce the amount of malondialdehyde in the hippocampus tissue of diabetic rats.